Zero (29 page)

The first figure patrolling the roof jerked and then went down and the second followed soon after. Webb shifted onto his other knee and brought the gun round just as the third Splinter noticed his co
mpanions were down. He was just running towards shelter, bringing a wrist panel up when he, too, fell. Webb shouldered the rifle then pulled a wire launcher from his belt. The grappling hook flew through the air and tangled round the metal railings that fenced in the roof space of Armin's building. Hugo scanned the alley and street below as Webb secured the line. The Splinter in the alley didn't look up.

“
Go,” Hugo said as the figure below wandered away. Webb clambered onto the sill, got one leg hooked over the wire then swung underneath and started pulling himself across. Harvey took a breath then clambered up and followed.

Hugo leaned out and checked the coast was still clear. He made sure his gloves were fastened tight about his wrists then climbed onto the sill. Despite seeing the line support both his companions, he still gave it a tug before trusting his weight to it. He hooked his knee over, then there was a sickening feeling, like launching without artificial gravity, as his body swung into space. Then he was dangling from the wire and he had his other leg hooked over and he was pulling himself along.

Sweat broke out all over his body and his shoulders strained. Darkness arched up above him, broken only by the pinpricks of the sector's track lights, like regimented stars across the sprawl of the colony's hull. He suppressed a whirl of disorientation and kept moving until he was at the other side and Harvey and Webb were helping him over the railing. They took a moment to lean over and scan the ground again as Hugo drew his gun and double checked the roof was clear.

“
Should we take them out?” Harvey whispered as they leant over to see two Splinters meet in the alley and whisper to each other.

“
They're patrolling too regularly,” Hugo muttered. “See?”

Another figure came round the end of the alley and pas
sed the first two who split up and went in opposite directions, the newcomer pausing where they'd been to look up and down the alley before carrying on.

“
Alarm will be sounded either way soon enough,” Webb muttered.

“
Remember,” Hugo said, “No survivors. Ready? Move.”

Hugo felt his heart start hammering as they
checked their weapons then set about securing more climbing wire to the railing. It increased as they climbed over the railing and dangled out over nothing.

“
One,” Hugo said, looking once up into the lines of track lights above him. “Two,” then he looked back down at his gloves clasping the wire. “Three. Go.”

Hugo shifted his boots with an effort and they started abseiling down the building. He was vaguely aware of Webb on one side and Harvey on the other but concentrated on keeping up the pace. They stepped over one set of darkened windows and then another. He waited for bullets to start flying from below but nothing came.

One last scramble and his feet connected with the glass of Armin's apartment. He fired and the glass shattered and gave way and they swung inwards, the air reduced to a confused mess of flying glass and gunfire. He landed on his knees, disconnecting the wire and rolled. More shouts and shots rang out. He came up shooting then threw himself behind a couch where Webb was already kneeling and returning fire.

Hugo got to his knees and began firing as the last of the glass from the windows shattered behind them. There was already a figure slumped over the table near the door and another sprawled on the floor, a bloody mess where one eye had been. There was another Splinter propped against the wall, clutching at his neck and sliding to the floor.

Someone was shooting from behind a downed book case and someone else from around the corner of a hallway. A light was flashing over the door and a buzzer sounded. Webb shot out out the lights and the control panel. The door jerked open an inch then shuddered shut again.

A light fixture overhead crashed down next to them, shot down by one of the Splinters, sparks and dust belching into the air. The whole apartment became a swaying jumble of light and dark, dust, blood and
shouts. They dropped back down behind the couch to reload, Webb cursing as he did so.

“
There's more of them than we thought,” he muttered.

“
Keep firing,” Hugo said. “We can't let anyone walk away.”

He leant around the
remains of the couch, concentrating his fire on the bookshelf. The Splinter behind it threw herself to the ground and it was a minute before Hugo registered that the firing from both the bookshelf and the hallway had stopped. He climbed back on to his knees beside Webb to peer through the smoke filling the room when there was a movement from the corner and something was flying through the air. He heard Webb swear then the wind was knocked clean out of him as Webb flattened him into the floor.

“
Cover -”

Webb
’s warning was swept away by a gut-wrenching boom that Hugo felt more than heard. It rattled his teeth and ballooned in his innards and was accompanied by a blinding flash. His blood thundered in his head and all he could hear was a warped ringing and his vision swam in and out of focus. He was vaguely aware of Webb's weight being hauled up off him and then rough hands dragging him out from behind the sofa. His body wouldn't obey and the gun fell out of his hands.

He blinked, trying to claw back his senses and
as he was propped up on his knees. His vision returned and he looked up into the skull-like face of Armin as he pulled out earplugs. Muscles like chords stood out in his neck and his eyes looked more than ever like they had been bored out of his head. His mouth was moving but it was a moment before the blaring in Hugo's ears subsided enough for him to make anything out.

“
...I will make you understand.”

“
Bite me,” snapped Webb. His commander was knelt next to him, hands behind his head with a Splinter rifle levelled at his back. There was cold metal pressed against the back of his own neck too. As the last effects of the stun charge wore off, anger began to burn in his gut. He opened his mouth but then Armin pressed the muzzles of his guns against their foreheads, redness rising on the paper-white cheeks.

“
This ends here.”

“
Armin, wait...” Another Splinter came up, eyes wary but jaw set. “The contract said we were to take him alive if we could.”

Armin's guns never wavered.
“They will get the body and be grateful. These black cross fucks are not leaving this building breathing.”

“
Armin, no,” the second Splinter tried to pull him back but Armin span with a wordless cry of fury and stuck him. The gun at Hugo's neck twitched. Realising it was now or never, he reached up and grabbed the Splinter behind him whilst he was distracted, hauling him over his shoulder. The man landed heavily on the floor. As he lay winded, Hugo pulled the rifle from his grasp and came up firing.

He took out the Splinter still dazed from Armin's blow and then the one behind Webb. Webb rolled out the way of the crumpling body, grabbing a weapon as he did so, coming
to his knees and the air was reduced once again to thundering chaos. He was aware on some level of streaks of fire lancing over his shoulder and calf, but he didn't let himself think about it and kept firing.

When he finally stopped and let the smoke clear there were only bodies around them and a heavy silence that clamoured around the ringing in his ears. Armin was against the wall, hands clutched over his abdomen and both legs a mangled mess. Hugo stepped over the dead and the dying, grabbed a handful of shirt front and hauled the Splinter up
against the wall.

“
Who wanted Lunar 1?” Hugo snarled. Armin spat blood in his face. Hugo slammed him against the wall. “
Who
?”

A smile that was all blood and teeth split the skull-like face.
“Get fucked.”

“
Tell him,” said Harvey who had appeared at his side, pressing her gun to the Splinter’s temple.

Armin
’s smiled widened. “See you in hell, Service-boy,” he whispered, shuddered and then the grin slid off his face and he went limp. Hugo let him go and he slumped to the floor.

Harvey scowled, face a tight mask under the dirt and boot black. “What’s going on that we don’t know about?”

Hugo didn’t have time to answer. Shots started to tear the front door apart.

“
Quick,” Webb shouted, gesturing back towards the window. Hugo grabbed Harvey's wrist then clambered back over the debris as Webb sprayed a black cross on the wall over Armin.

Hugo threw one more glance b
ack at the mess that was all that was left of Armin, then all three of them were grabbing their climbing wires and clambering up the side of the building. Hugo's pulse thundered, his shoulders burned and his wounds throbbing. His ears still buzzed and his breath came in short bursts but he kept climbing.

The lights were now on in the next apartment up but the terrified couple shrank back from the windows as they climbed past. He just had time to register the man tapping something into a comm unit then they were past the window and making for the roof.

They were just reaching the railings when there were shouts and firing from below and a bullet went right past his ear. With one last push that he thought would burst his chest right open, he hoisted himself up over the railing and rolled onto the roof. Harvey and Webb were already running.

The roof sloped upwards and they skidded and scrambled about on the corrugated metal. Webb sat down on the edge up ahead, swung his legs over then cast a glance over his shoulder. As soon as he saw Harvey and Hugo were close behind he pushed himself off and disappeared. There was a clang and Hugo reached
the edge and saw Webb had dropped himself onto a metal fire escape a storey below.

“
Come on,” he shouted then he was clambering down the ladder. The rusty structure rattled and squeaked.

Hugo’s knees jarred as his boots made contact with the metal then he was holding his arms up for Harvey. The short spacer muttered a string of curses as she lowered herself until she was dangling from her fingertips. Hugo reached and took a grip of her waist and helped her down and then they were both scrambling down after Webb.

There were flashing lights, sirens and more shots starting to ring out from somewhere back the way they'd come and when they reached the pavement at the bottom of the escape, they saw that the main street ahead was a riot of flashing lights and people running. Flyers whined by overhead and the street was flooded with light.

“
This way,” Webb hissed and ran away from the activity. They dodged round mounds of rubbish, boots splashing through puddles until they reached a wire fence. Webb was already scrambling over the razor wire curled round the top. Hugo felt it rip through his clothes and into his skin as he followed.

Once all three of th
em were back on the ground, they fell into the all-too-familiar routine of following Webb on a mad scramble through the dark, over walls and under fences, down back streets and behind buildings, a twisting trail that never took them to anywhere with light or traffic, until they made their way back to where they'd hidden the bikes.

The day
-cycle was breaking when they cut the engines of their bikes in the dusty space of an abandoned workshop. They hauled themselves off the saddles with a collective groan, staggered and slumped onto the floor.

The water from their canteen was the sweetest thing Hugo had ever tasted. He swallowed mouthful after mouthful. When he
thought he couldn't swallow any more he passed it on to Webb who tipped his head back and drank deeply. Hugo forced himself to ignore the trembling of the adrenaline crash that was setting into his limbs and made himself take in his crew's condition.

Webb was sat a bit awkwardly but the only stiffness he coul
d see was from exhaustion and not from any injury. Harvey had clambered to her feet and was splashing her face from a basin on the side without a sign of any wounds, though she was leaning heavily on the workbench.

As his breathing slowed, he became aware of the wet stickiness on his face and the
burning in his shoulder and leg. He staggered over to the workbench and the basin. Harvey blinked up at him through the water and smudged boot black. Her eyes darted about his face then she was tipping the dirty water down a drain and refilling the basin from a groaning tap in the wall. Hugo reached for the water but Harvey smacked his hands away before shrugging herself out of her jacket and picking up a rag. She soaked the rag in the water and reached up and started wiping down his face. Hugo closed his eyes and let her clean away the spit, dirt and blood.

ø

Webb winced as he pulled his jacket off. Every breath sent fire through his ribs, his ankle was pulsing and every movement seemed to reawaken the stun charge headache. He shifted his leg out in front of him to try and ease his ankle then pulled their stashed pack out from under a workbench and fished out the computer panel. He encouraged it to boot up with a couple of swearwords and taps on the floor, trying to push back the waves of trembling that were attempting to bring him down.